CAC is the starting point where you input your SSOP, GMP’s and other prerequisite programs, develop your food defense plan, listeria controls, humane handling, poultry GCP’s, SOPs, and HACCP Plans. From there you enter your inventory items and associate products to HACCP Plans.

CAC is where you create your custom forms. Custom forms are just that, you decide what data you need to collect. The forms are then pushed to the tablet where your employees enter the data. For example if you have a critical control point for temperature you would create the form, name it, determine what is to be collected, how often it needs to be done, and how it will flow through the system. A feature many of our customers find very useful and their employees find very helpful is our Custom Help feature. You can create custom help on each form for your employees to read if they are uncertain how to fill out the form as some forms may only be used periodically. Employees can tap the help button and the information you entered appears. The information in the help field can be as extensive as the appendix A tables or as simple as directing them to see their supervisor if they have questions.

The CAC is also where you perform your data analysis, see what data has been collected, review your pre shipment review data, etc. It is all very straight forward and easy to use. You can export data to a variety of formats or use the built in tools to graph temperatures, data mine across forms, etc. There is a "Guest Only" access that allows visitors or regulators to see your finished plans and records you have generated, but not see your unfinished or draft programs. Once something is signed, for example a HACCP Plan, it is locked and can’t be changed. When you want to change a plan you can simply make a draft copy, edit it and activate the new plan when you are finished by signing it. The old plan is automatically archived and labeled inactive. Your data is mirrored on both the SQL server and the CAC, if you lose internet you (and your regulator) still have access to the records that have been entered.

Tablet

Operators log in using their private ID and password to get access to the forms they need. Based on login ID, operators can see how many forms are due, how many have been done, etc. When they complete a task, for instance taking the CCP temperature we mentioned earlier, they tap save on the tablet the date, time, operator, and all the information they have entered are saved, and locked. You have already determined what mandatory data is, the operator can’t save unless they have entered data into that field, i.e. there are no more NR’s for failing to completely fill out a form, or having one that noone can read. You also determined if there was an acceptable range for the temperature, if what they enter is outside of that range they get an immediate pop up that requires them to fill out an immediate corrective action. An alert can be sent notifying the people you determined when you created the form that there was a deviation. Unlike other tablet software, we designed the tablets to work both when they have an internet connection, and when they don’t because we know there are times when your internet is down or they are working in a part of the plant without Wi-Fi.

Desktop Forms

The Desktop Forms is very similar to the tablet, it allows you to enter data from fixed work stations, for example if you enter a lot of data concerning shipping it makes sense to have a computer in the shipping area that is dedicated to it. It also allows you to have the ability to verify records and perform pre-shipment review from an office. Food Safe Pro!® L3 uses a rolling pre-shipment review; each form created is routed through the system to the verification task (available on both the tablet and desktop forms). Records review and pre-shipment review are conducted from the verification screen, after they are verified the records then flow into the CAC L3 PSR data. Of course you can see the data before it has been approved for pre-shipment review in the L3 Tablet data, this is a great way to get a real time feel for what is happening in the facility.

A Typical Day with Food Safe Pro!® L3

On a typical day the pre-op monitor will start by signing into a tablet, the software checks to see if there are any updated forms, if there are it loads them into the appropriate tab (HACCP, SSOP Pre-Op, SSOP-Op, Other, and Ad-Hoc). As they are doing pre-op they open the pre-op tab. You have determined how your pre-op form is set up, maybe you have multiple forms for rooms or specific equipment, and maybe you are a smaller operation and only have one form. The operator performs their pre-op duties and records their results and taps save. The pre-op form now shows one was due, and one was done, i.e. the task has been completed. The next monitoring activity the operator has to perform is to verify that the scales have been calibrated according to your calibration pre-requisite program. They perform the task and tap the "other" tab and complete the form. Operations have started and they perform a pre-chill, and record the results, then they perform a moisture pick up verification, a CCP temperature check, and labeling check, etc. You can see the records coming in via the CAC L3 tablet data screen. The QA manager has a minute so they pop open the verification screen on their Desktop forms and start reviewing records and performing pre-shipment review, or maybe it’s someone designated in the front office, either way no one was out looking for forms to sign off on.

Your assigned inspector wants to review records associated with the CCP check, instead of wandering around your plant looking for a clip board, or coming into your office and asking for the records they login as a guest on the terminal that has been put in their office and perform their records review. You don’t have to worry that someone forgot to do a check, or forgot to fill out a form completely. If there was an issue you would have received an alert. They also didn’t use your or your staff’s time finding a record for them from two months ago.

Monthly Vulnerability Reports

Clients utilizing the Food Safe Pro!® L3 electronic record keeping system are assigned a consultant who reviews their programs and records. On a monthly basis the consultant reviews records input by establishment personnel and analyzes data for trends, for example higher temperatures noted on products, deviations from critical limits, etc. and they then submit a vulnerability report to the establishment for review. Utilizing a data management system allows the consultant to quickly and efficiently review the data collected, often times identifying negative trends before they become a concern allowing the client to make the necessary changes to their systems to preclude problems, and ultimately allowing them to maintain focus on food safety.

Monthly vulnerability reports are reviewed as part of both the Desktop and Onsite Audits however they are not to be confused with an audit. The vulnerability report is just that, it is a report on potential vulnerabilities as identified during data reviews. They are typically limited to a 1 month time period as such they don’t give the total picture of the establishment.

Audits and FSA’s

When you get a phone call from the USDA District Office, the EIAO informs you that they are going to start a FSA in two weeks, and they need the last 60 days of records. Or maybe they are investigating something and want specific records from last year. When they arrive in the plant you provide them guest access and they can query the records, you didn’t spend any time digging them up. If they want a specific days records you can go into the PSR screen, select that day, and save the data as a spread sheet, word document, etc. and email it to them. Instead of spending staff hours getting the records ready for them you literally spend minutes, or less.

Data Analysis

You decide you want to do a six month review of product temperatures, it literally takes minutes to have the 1500 (or more) temperature records pulled into your graph. You didn’t pay someone to re-enter the data from paper to a spread sheet, it was put into the system one time. You notice that you have a spike every Monday. It isn’t a deviation however it is close. After some investigating you determine that the defrost cycle on the product storage cooler is set for Sunday night, and while it should only run 30 minutes it was miss-set to run for 5 hours. Or you notice that one operator always takes the temperature at approximately the same time of day instead of taking it at a random time. You might notice that a specific vendors delivery trucks are always right on the edge of what you will accept for a receiving temperature; is that why certain products shelf life isn’t what it should be? The point is with real data you have the ability to make informed decisions. If you are using a paper based system you are spending a lot of money either recording and filing, and never using the data, or re-entering the data into spreadsheets or other programs. With Food Safe Pro!® L3 you enter it once, and have access to it whenever you need it. It is that simple!

Questions and Answers

We are often asked, how scalable is the program? I am a very small or very large operator, will it work for me. The answer is that we designed the program specifically for the food industry, it is completely scalable. You can use everything, or just the parts you want. Specific modules are listed below, there are a lot of them because you have a very heavy record keeping requirement. Think of it this way, the USDA FSIS is using their PHIS system to track you and what their inspectors find in your facility, they use their data to make decisions about you. Food Safe Pro!® L3 in turn allows you to get ahead of them, identify trends, and make decisions about your facility before they even realize there is a problem.

The other question we are asked is: I already have tracking software, or oven software, or automated cooling systems, how does Food Safe Pro!® L3 work with what I already have? In most cases Food Safe Pro!® L3 can either pull the data in directly, or allow you to utilize the other software inside Food Safe Pro!® L3; and while there are exceptions in most cases Food Safe Pro!® L3 can be configured to give you access to all of your food safety programs in one spot.

Your customers require that you be SQF, BRC, ISO 22,000 or some other program certified? Simple, utilizing the SOP module you can not only create the required programs, you can collect the data needed to demonstrate compliance. It is that simple!

What modules come with Food Safe Pro!® L3?(You turn off the ones you don’t need, but they are available to you at no additional cost!)

Quite simply Food Safe Pro!® L3 is software that eliminates paper records, duplication of effort, and allows you to focus on food safety. Food Safe Pro!® L3 consists of three integrated interfaces, Command and Control Center (CAC), Tablet, and Desktop Forms, each work with our SQL servers to create a state of the art, paperless record keeping and integrated food safety system. The CAC is the heart of the program, it is here that you develop your integrated food safety program, perform data analysis, review records, create data collection forms, etc. The tablet software runs on 10 inch windows based tablets and is where the majority of data entry occurs. Desktop Forms is very similar to the tablet software however it allows you to input data on a desktop, laptop, or other computer system with the use of a keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc.